


Hive of Thoughts

by animangod



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Hive Mind, M/M, Mind Meld, Post-Canon, Technology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 09:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17978852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/animangod/pseuds/animangod
Summary: Fai and Kurogane agree to visit the Kakyo of this world to share their thoughts and emotions with one another, literally.





	Hive of Thoughts

 Empathy. Noun. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

The expression “I know how you feel” is best associated with it. An expression of having gone through a situation similar enough to understand where the other person was coming from and understand the emotions they are going through.

What if one were able to go beyond empathy?

Technology once intended to model soldiers after worker bees had been a complete failure to recreate the same results in humans. There was too much personal thought and emotions that made the technology useless for soldiers. For friends or couples wanting to experience a deeper connection to one another's mind, the technology was available and usually lasted no more than a few days, without going through the process again.

It was something Fai discovered on this new world and he wanted to try it out. Of course he needed someone willing to go along with it. Kurogane had been a little skeptical of the idea but he was curious. It didn't take much for the curiosity of the thing and Fai encouragingly brought up they might be able to hear each other's native languages.

It was that idea of, even if they didn't make progress learning, the what if they could hear and it had been a long time since he really heard Fai speak the language he knew. Yama was the last time and it wasn't for very long.

They made sure Syaoran and Mokona would be fine, Syaoran having found a large library to spend time with old books and Mokona was given a couple boxes with their lunches inside for when they got _hungry_.

Kurogane went with Fai to see the Kakyo of this world. It was a slow process as it was their first time going through the process before they finally made it to where the assistants were sticking the electric nodes against specific places along the scalp, parting hair to make skin contact.

Kakyo calmly explained more about the procedure as Fai asked questions, more to find out how it worked so he could use it later maybe - just magically - and once all the wires were in position, the workers dimmed the lights before leaving and the low hum of the machine kept them company.

Fai reached a hand over toward Kurogane who let his fingers entangle with Fai's in the low light. The low hum became slightly louder when it began to work.

“For the highest success, focus on a memory the two of you share with the same strong emotional attachment,” Kakyo's voice came into the room.

“You remember that night when I punched you?” Fai asked, sending a smile Kurogane's way.

“Which time?” Kurogane asked even as a small grin grew, automatically remembering that night he awoke in his country with his Tomoyo. A night filled with emotions, things like surprise, pride, amusement, sorrow, awe, hopefulness, apprehension, remorse, love and yet the biggest being the overwhelming relief. Relief he was home with his Tomoyo and relief to finally hear one of Fai's nicknames again. He had never imagined before Tokyo he would be so relieved to hear the monikers.

Fai had been ushered outside with Souma when it seemed Kurogane would wake up soon. Tomoyo had assured him he would live but hearing him wake up and speak was such a wonderful and welcome relief, that it flooded his senses before a tangled blend of emotions could find any room.Things like panic, anger, joy, awe, optimism, concern, guilt, love, worry, _hunger_.

While they were focusing on the same thing, Kakyo activated the machine, and as it worked, there was a low fuzziness that felt more like slipping into a dream while fully awake, and Kakyo watched on the screen before her the images of two brains. While both showed signs they had been through something traumatic, she was more concerned with making sure the amygdala was not harmed and paying close attention to both of their hippocampus’ and prefrontal cortexes to know when to stop the machine.

It was harder to focus just on that night with the dream like quality coming into play as they both had strong memories associated with dreams and the dream world as well, but when they caught their minds wandering they redirected their main focus back onto that night.

A long time ago, Fai would have been terrified to allow himself to be seen so thoroughly like this, so open to the man he wasn't supposed to get close to. A while ago, he would have called it an invasion of privacy and scuttled further into his defenses and would have pointedly made all efforts not to think of any nicknames when he thought Kurogane would be paying any attention. Now though, now it was just another way to be intimate with Kurogane.

A long time ago, Kurogane would have raged at the idea of having to share his own headspace with an absolute stranger. He would have raged to cover up the rest of his feelings that he didn't want to deal with or acknowledge he had. A while ago, they would have been dealing with so many negative emotions and it would have only damaged their relationship further. Now though, now he didn't mind if Fai shared his headspace. He already took up part of his mind long before they ever attempted to share headspace.  
  
Words and images, one's own and vaguely familiar, about the night began to merge into one. Seeing both the visual signs of success and the numbers on the screen indicate that it was almost time, Kakyo waited another minute before she began to turn off the machine, letting it ease up till it was entirely off.

Kakyo spoke again, her voice coming inside the room. “You should be sharing one another's thoughts now. As long as everything is working just fine, in a few minutes, we'll come back in and remove the wires from your heads.”

“Thank you,” Fai said pleasantly, and took that as a signal they didn't have to focus as much on a meaningful memory. Kurogane took it similarly and mentally returned to the current moment.

Kurogane took a moment to get used to hearing Fai's voice beside his own internal thoughts and while he couldn't understand a word he said, it was pleasant and a little distracting as a part of him wanted to simply listen and try to understand what he was think saying even though right now he had no way to make sense of the words. Along with the melodious words he was thinking, he could see words that looked like the lettering Fai used when he cast his spells come and go along with sometimes a flicker of an image and wondered if they were the same words he was think saying or if they were something else entirely. There was a cluster of feelings, giddiness and inquisitiveness mostly and a lingering anxiety that he thought maybe never really left Fai but was simply background noise most days.

Meanwhile, Fai felt images, pictures of things and shadowy objects that he recognized were the forms of some of the things in the room with them. It was interesting to see how Kurogane perceived him when he was seeing with his mind rather than his eyes, and interestingly enough, he knew he was still holding Kurogane's hand, but he couldn't see it or the rest of Kurogane through Kurogane's shared mind. He wondered how he could turn off awareness to his own body when it was usually causing him a lot of pain. There was a curiosity prodding softly at his mind while background emotions like attentiveness and eagerness kept the curiosity company. For someone who spoke very little, Kurogane had an active and visual mind. There were few words but the words there were in the same language he had heard back in Yama.

Fai gently squeezed Kurogane's hand, “I can see your thoughts, Kuro-sama.”

“Yeah? Can hear yours.” Can't understand them, but he could hear them.

Fai softly laughed at that, and waved his hand just to see it waving at the invisible Kurogane in their shared mental landscape as well as a little bit of fresh confusion. Even though he had waved several times before and said he was just saying hi, Kurogane never seemed to understand why.

 


End file.
